The discussion throughout this specification comes about due to the realisation of the inventors and/or the identification of certain prior art problems by the inventors.
In the identification of objects and articles words, pictures and numbers are used universally.
Specifically there is a need in gaming casinos and also in any application using tokens to be able to identify counterfeit tokens such as gaming chips, ensure that the chips have correctly assigned values and improve the player's enjoyment of the game.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,983,646 discloses a chip that incorporates fluorescing dyes in the rim so that when illuminated by an external light source the rims will respond by fluorescing. Different value chips can have different patterns and respond to differing wavelengths to increase the degree of discrimination between chip types and still identify counterfeit chips.
Gaming chips with transponders capable of carrying data that can be read and updated from a remote controller are known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,166,502, 5,651,548 and 5,735,742. The concept is to have a gaming chip that is identifiable and can be tracked as it moves around the casino. The transponder is adapted to be read and written to so that the identification data can be updated.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,983 discloses a metal token with light responsive dyes infused into a coating to facilitate detection of counterfeit chips in slot machine tokens.
Any discussion of documents, devices, acts or knowledge in this specification is included to explain the context of the invention. It should not be taken as an admission that any of the material forms a part of the prior art base or the common general knowledge in the relevant art in Australia or elsewhere on or before the priority date of the disclosure and claims herein.
It is an object of this invention to provide additional functionality for gaming chips and identification tokens or labels.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a more readably discernable manner of identifying articles.
A further object of the present invention is to alleviate at least one disadvantage associated with the prior art.